Apollo Moon Exploration

The Apollo Moon exploration missions were the culmination of a long series of missions beginning in 1964 which included the U.S. Ranger, Surveyor, and Orbiter programs and the U.S.S.R. Luna and Zond programs. There were also six one-man Earth orbiting missions (Mercury) and ten two-man orbital flights (Gemini) in the early sixties in preparation for lunar missions. The Apollo 7 mission orbited the Earth in final preparation for the Moon vogages and the Apollo 8-10 missions orbited the Moon but did not land. In the period 1969 to 1972, Apollo 11, 12 and Apollo14 - 17 landed on the moon. Apollo 13 experienced an explosion enroute and was looped around the Moon and back to the Earth barely in time to save the crew.

Apollo 11 and 12 landed in smooth lunar maria, while Apollo 14-17 reached more rocky and mountainous regions to widen the variety of samples collected.

Apollo 7 to Apollo 10

Apollo 7, the first manned mission in the Apollo program, was launched on October 11, 1968. This eleven-day Earth orbital mission for three astronauts gave the opportunity for testing the command module. It was also the first manned launch of the Saturn 1B launch vehicle.

Apollo 8, launched on December 21, 1968, was the first manned vehicle to navigate around the Moon. It was during this mission that the famous "Earthrise" photo, shown below, was made by Astronaut William Anders.

Earthrise

The Apollo 9 and 10 missions also looped around the Moon and carried the Lunar Module for testing, but were not intended to land. Apollo 8-10 were launched with the Saturn V launch vehicle.

The images and text are extracted from the NASA sites, which may be consulted for more details.

Apollo 11

Launched on July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 made history with the first manned landing on the Moon and the first man to set foot on the Moon. Neil Armstrong was the first human to set foot on the Moon, followed by Buzz Aldrin.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin salutes the flag during the Apollo 11 mission.

The images and text are extracted from the NASA sites, which may be consulted for more details.

Apollo 12

Launched on November 14, 1969, the Apollo 12 mission landed the manned Lunar Module within 200 meters of the Surveyer 3 probe. The second manned lunar landing mission carried astronauts Charles (Pete) Conrad, Richard F. Gordon and Alan L. Bean. A precision landing was made on the Moon's surface using the onboard automatic guidance system, touching down only 183 meters from the intended target point. This achieved an important goal of this mission because a precise landing would be necessary to explore the more rugged terrain on the lunar highlands on subsequent missions.

There were two "EVAs" or explorations on the lunar surface. On the first, of four hours duration, they placed a solar wind experiment and collected lunar samples and core-tube specimens. On the second EVA they covered 1311 meters on the lunar surface collecting samples. Most of the samples were basalt and radiometric dating assessed them as hundreds of millions of years younger than the Apollo 11 samples.

After liftoff from the lunar surface, the ascent stage was remotely guided to impact the lunar surface to provide an active seismic source for the seismic detection equipment that had been placed on the Moon.

The images and text are extracted from the NASA sites, which may be consulted for more details.

Apollo 13

Launched on April 11, 1970, Apollo 13 experienced an explosion enroute and was looped around the Moon and back to the Earth barely in time to save the crew. Plagued from the beginning, there was an early shutdown of the one of the engines and then an unrelated explosion in the service module. The crew took refuge in the lunar module and returned to the Earth after a single pass around the Moon.

The images and text are extracted from the NASA sites, which may be consulted for more details.

Apollo Spacecraft

The Saturn V rocket lifts Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969

The Command/Service Module (CSM) over the lunar surface.

The Lunar Module of Apollo 16

The images and text are extracted from the NASA sites, which may be consulted for more details.